IMMIGRATION
to
the
UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA
By: Andrew Nesterak, Greg Honchel, Anna
Demaree, and Kevin Van Osterom
For a very long time, the United States of America has been the world leader of immigrants and refugees. There has been four major periods of immigration in the U.S.A. There was the first wave, the second wave, the third wave, and the fourth wave. The first wave began in the 1600’s and ended around 1820. The second wave began in 1820 and ended around 1880. The third wave began in 1880 and ended around 1920. And finally, the fourth wave began around the 1950’s to present day America.
The First Wave
The place of origin that the immigrants in this wave came from was England, France, Germany, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and some Spanish, but most of them came from England. The push factors in this wave were that some people fled religious prosecution from their last country, some were convicts from English jails, and many people sought economic opportunity. The pull factors were that some sought adventure, and again, they hoped for economic opportunity. When the immigrants got to America, they settled along the east coast, and many others became indentured servants because they couldn’t afford passage to the colonies. Also, there was no other place to go because no where else was discovered yet in the country. In 1808, congress made it illegal to bring slaves to the country, but other than that, there no reaction to the immigrants in the country.
The Second Wave
From 1820 to 1880, 7.5 million immigrants entered the U.S. 1/3 of them were Irish, another 1/3 of them were Germans. The Irish came because of a potato famine that killed over a million people and left their economy in a depression. The Irish stayed on the coastline because of their shortage of money. The Germans had money and they traveled to the Midwest in search of farmland. They left Germany because of an economic depression and unemployment, and because of political unrest. Chinese immigrants came to California in search of gold. Eventually, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which made it illegal for Chinese immigrants to the U.S. They made this law because they were being attacked for taking jobs from people.
The Third Wave
The third wave of immigrants to the U.S. was the largest of all of the four immigration waves. The immigrants were coming from all over the world, including places like Poland, Hungary, Italy, Denmark, Czech Republic, Norway, Mexico, Austria, Slovakia, and Sweden. Many of the immigrants wanted to come to the U.S. because of poverty, epidemics, overpopulation, shortage of farmland, religious prosecution, and unemployment. There were also golden opportunities to come to the United States, too. There were many job opportunities, good education, a rich country, and there was no risk of religious prosecution. Most of the immigrants were coming from the Atlantic Ocean, so they settled on the East Coast because they didn’t have enough money to move inland.
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